Off with 'em

Our Artificially inseminated boy Starsrpung Amazing Incident took a trip to the vets yesterday and carelessly came back missing 2 important reproductive parts.

It was a hard decision to take after all the investment in Anitra and so much time spent researching and praticing cat AI. So assuming that we do not succeed in having another litter from Anitra (which is unlikely), in terms of our breeding plans all that effort is wasted.

Amazing has some fantastic qualities, including stunning contrast, fantastically soft fur and a wonderful shape. On the other hand, in keeping with the breed standard and responsible breeding he also has a number of faults, especially the stripes behind his shoulders and a nose which is a little to dark.

A pity but that's life. What all this effort has given us is a most fantastic pet which will give us great pleasure every day for, hopefully, many years to come.

Amazing has also proved very successful with the judges at cat shows so we will continue to show him and hope that he will reach premier or international premier not too long after he moves into the adult castrated class.

For more cat news www.starsrpung.com

Smoke Rings

I guess with a place like this there will always be a new problem to fix and new learnings for regular preventative maintenance. This is one of those occasions.

During last weekend, the wood oven in our living room (our main source of heating) started blowing somke rings, like this



Now, especially in the damp heavy weather we have had, this oven can be difficult to get going and can smoke a little whilst the metal is not up to full temperature. On my way home from a meeting in Stavanger this Tuesday, Mrs Longship rang to complain that the oven was filling the house with smoke.

M. LS rang the local chimey sweep (this activity is organised by the local council and everybody should automatically get there chimneys sweeped every 2 years). She was informed that a new company had taken over the contract and things in this area were in disarray and they couldn't say when our chimneys were last cleaned. They then stated that they were hoping to get to everyone this year.

This evening I started the process of investigation by taking a couple of the insection holes off the oven. Heres what I found



And the view into the outlet pipe was like this



Fotunately this material which I guess one would call slag came off relatively easy and with the help of various tools I managed to get it all cleaned out, collecting half of this stuff in the oven and half in the cleaning insepection hole in the basement.



I also had a quick look and cleaned what I could reach through the inspection door in the loft, fortunately the chimney itself isn't so bad although it is well due a clean.

In total I cleaned out a remarkable 7.5Kg of this hard black soot/slag. I shall now make this an annual event.

The end result a wood oven which lights much easier than before, generates almost no smoke and gives off a lot more heat.

Red Light, Green Light

Not long back from a recent couple of eventful days in Lithuania.

Amongst the many strange things (including 80 year old Russian professors from St. Petersburgh appearing from thin air) I have to tell you about the lighting arrangement in the hotel room.

Now, before I continue, this was a new and reasonably respectable hotel, the rooms were clean and comfortable and the food and the service was good.

In my (and all other it appears) hotel room, above the middle of the bed there were three light switches, nothing so remarkable in itself. However, the light switch to the left had a red stripe on it and the light switch on the right had a green stripe on it. I naturally had to investigate, starting with the unmarked switch, a pleasent flouresent up light on the wall above the bed, then the red switch, the same only this time almost neon red, and predictable enough the green switch provided the same effect only with a green light this time.

I can only begin to wonder, the mind boggles.

Light in the Darkness

Monday night, as I had borrowed a chain saw the day before, I continued working on the eternal wood pile, with which a number of you are acquainted.

I had hoped to chop up the trailer load that I had dumped by the saw, the trailer load I had in the trailer and load the trailer one more time before it got dark. This proved a little optimisitic in the 2 hours of daylight that were left.

Not detered by the darkness I backed the tractor and trailer up to the saw and continue to work away with the rear spot lights on full blast and I also rigged up a couple of 500 Watt work lights for good measure.

Now, it can be eerie out here surrounded by trees and little else. The addittion of nearly 2000 Watts of lights only made matters worse. The darkness behind the lights was an impeniterable blackness and between the rumble of the tractor engine, the scream of the saw and ear muffs, wild horses could have been approach at full gallop and I would have been none the wiser.

Focusing on my work prevented my mind running wild with chilling fantasies. Matters were not helped by the sudden appearence of a brilliant light through the trees in the distance lightning up the surrounding area nearly as brilliantly as my own lighting arrangement. I had to walk away from my work area to cofirm that after such a dull evening, the moon could be so unbelievably brilliant, just in case they had finally come to get me.......

Oh, btw, the sharpened saw is a revalation, not a single trip of the thermal overload and straight through those extra tough knots. Many thanks to JN for his paitience with a metal file.